Half a Decade

Our darling B turns FIVE today.

That girl is a firecracker. She loves rainbows, fairies, jewelry, and anything fancy. She loves animals and will seek out random facts about any kind of animal. She invented a game called "I Spy with My Little Animal Eye." The rules are similar to I Spy, but you're thinking of an animal. There are a couple complicated details to get the game started, but I love that she thought of the game herself, and we play it in the car all the time.
She expresses frustration because there are so many things she wants to be when she grows up: veterinarian dentist, marine biologist, ballerina, ballerina astronaut (she wants to do ballet on the moon), artist, chef . . . the list goes on.
She still loves to spend her time drawing, painting, doodling, writing, coloring-- any art project will occupy her for hours. She also gets lost in her own little worlds, creating her own scenes from various movies and books she loves or just scenes from her own brain.
The words I've used to describe her since she was tiny remain the same. She is-- more than anything else-- expressive. She has a big heart and feels things very deeply. She is kind and loving. She loves her friends, her fish, and her family so much. She adores her dad, and thinks he is hilarious. She is very sensitive, and I would even say nurturing toward me. She truly is my little buddy.

We love that little girl so much. Happy birthday, Bria!

soccer player

Bria has been begging to try soccer for ages, so we finally signed her up for a session this spring. In true Bria style, she was more excited to pick out her gear than she was about actually playing, but I think she is having a good time. Since it's an introductory session, they don't play games, which was disappointing for her, but she seems to be getting a better handle on the ball after a couple weeks of game-based drills. We'll see if she expresses any interest in playing again. In the meantime, I think she's the cutest soccer player ever.

The Haps

It seems like it's about time for another Bria photo dump. Yes?

This week it was warm enough for a picnic! Spring is coming!

Even if the week before we finally got some real snow. (Well, "real" is very relative. It was, like, one inch, but it did cancel school.)

Pajama Day at school-- wearing her sweet homemade nightgown

Providing mom with moral with support in the car wash. It's possible I hadn't driven a car through a car wash since I was 16.

Staying with Marc and Jenn's kids-- we did cupcake wars.

And we took the kids for frozen yogurt.

Bria made all her school valentines by herself. This was her work station.

She loves to set up tea parties for the two of us. Always very fancy.

We ventured out to the Museum of the American Indian, which has a totally awesome kid area-- who knew?

 Building an igloo..

After a lot of tears (hers and mine), empty threats, bribes, more tears, and then a sticker chart, Bria finally learned to stay in her bed all night long. She earned a pizza movie night with her besties. Success!!

During the Super Bowl halftime show, when Beyonce came out on stage, Bria immediately ran and grabbed some of my heels (didn't even matter they were mismatched) to wear while she danced right along with Bey. That girl's got some serious moves-- Beyonce too.

And now for just some random Bria awesomeness:

California Love

Last month I spent a glorious six days with my mom and sisters in California. Rachel, Lindsay, and I flew in near Amy's new house in Orange County, and then the four of us made the drive east to Palm Desert to meet up with Whitney and my mom at my parents' time share. The last time we had a Sisters Retreat was in NYC three years ago, so we were long overdue. I really do wish I lived by my sisters. I only sometimes succeeded in not crying when I would think about going home and not seeing them again for months and months.

I had two very long travel days, at least made easier by the fact that my incredibly long layovers were in Denver.

 So happy to see palm trees when I exited the airport!

We went to the freezing cold pool

We tried to go bowling and then remembered it was Saturday night, so the alley was insanely crowded. Instead we crammed all six of us in the photo booth and then played a little Dance Dance Revolution.

The ultimate girls weekend activity: pedicures

And at-home facials:

One morning Amy said "let's take a nature walk" which actually meant hiking up a mountain. Whitney and I refused to embark on such an adventure, so we turned around halfway. 

We ate so much good food: pizza, sushi, Mexican, cheesecake, paninis. Amazing.

 

 And we filled our quota of group pictures, of course

national cathedral

For several years we've had on our holiday activity list to visit the National Cathedral to see their creche exhibit, and we nearly didn't make it this year. We're lucky they left it up until late January, so Bria and I had a little date to check it out on one of the last days. We didn't take any pictures inside, but when we got out, Bria found a ladybug crawling on the steps. (Is it true you can tell a ladybug's age by how many spots it has? That must be some childhood misconception I have, right? Because this ladybug had, like, twenty spots, and I find it hard to believe ladybugs live multiple decades.) Anyway, we spent quite a bit of time looking at it before heading out.

Of course since we were just around the corner, Bria and I ate lunch at 2 Amys: one of my all-time favorite places to eat.

 (she drew a picture of me sitting in a beach chair, under an umbrella, reading a book.)